


something worth fighting for

by coalitiongirl_ficlets (coalitiongirl)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan-Mills Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 08:33:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4515093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl_ficlets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>from a tumblr prompt: Regina gets nearly dead. There's anger. And sweetness. And Team Moms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	something worth fighting for

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SgtMac](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SgtMac/gifts).



Regina can’t feel her legs, which might be something to worry about if not for the fact that she suspects that if she  _could_ feel them, she’d be in agony. The wizard’s magic is firing through her, hot and poisonous and like bile in her throat, and she pours her own back at him with deadly accuracy. She only needs to slow him down, make him weak…

_“Mom!”_ Henry is shouting, and she closes her eyes, grits her teeth and focuses. She can’t be distracted, not right now, not even if this costs her her life. The only thing that matters for all of them– for the two of them trapped in this cellar and for the last piece of their odd little family still hunting for them– is winning this battle.

But he isn’t calling for her.  _“Mom!”_ Henry screams again. “ _We’re down here!”_

Her magic surges forward at the sound of Emma’s voice, calling back to Henry, and a smile splits the wizard’s face as he breathes, “Soon.”

“Never,” she hisses back, and magic tears through her muscles and down her veins, destroying nerve endings and hurling what feels like all her internal organs from her body as she shoots out one final blow. The wizard falls to the ground and Regina drops at last, her mind finally recognizing the raw agony she’s been in until now.

The last thing she sees is Henry’s face tucking into her shoulder and a burst of light from above.

* * *

She’s barely conscious when she does wake up. She can hear voices– the Blue Fairy comes and goes, and with her goes some of Regina’s pain. Snow, pressing lips to her forehead and then a cool cloth replacing them. Henry curled up beside her on what must be Emma’s bed at the loft, if the sound of footsteps up and down stairs is any indication.

And Emma, always Emma. She pricks up her ears when she can and listens for familiar footfalls clomping around the bed. Emma rarely speaks when she’s in the room, and Regina aches for her presence, to be sure that she’s there and she’s okay.

When she opens her eyes, it’s morning of a day she can’t name and Henry’s arms are wrapped around her. “Henry,” she croaks.

“Mom!” His eyes are shining and stricken at once, and he hugs her tighter before he slides away from her, jumping up and twisting around in a panic. “You’re awake. But you’re not better yet. We need to call Dr. Whale, right? He had some painkillers he said you'd–“

“Henry,” says a stiff voice, and Regina turns her head with effort and sees Emma sitting on a folding chair beside the bed, blanket on her lap like she’s been there all night. She looks exhausted, weighted down like they’d been in Neverland and during the apple and more recently, during their road trip; as though the entire world had settled on her shoulders and she’s determined to set it right.

_For me?_ Regina wonders, and then brushes it aside before she can wonder too dangerously.

“Go get Mary Margaret,” Emma mutters finally, looking strained. Her mouth is set in a tight line and her eyes are dark and furious and this time, Regina has no trouble believing  _for me_. “I need a few minutes to go over what happened with Regina.”

“He wasn’t in danger,” Regina hurries to clarify as Henry runs down the stairs. The wizard had been very clear about his plans for Henry, and they had involved him unharmed. “I would never have–“

“I  _know_ you wouldn’t,” Emma snaps, cutting her off. “But where the hell do you get off putting yourself in that situation? What kind of  _fucking_ hare-brained…idiotic…” Her fists are clenched and she’s shaking and Regina can only stare at her in confusion at the multitudes of emotion she seems to be containing in that moment. “He wasn’t going to hurt either of you! You were in a hostage situation!”

“I had to!” The words tear themselves from her throat, hoarse and painful.

Emma scoffs. “Had to? Listen, Regina,” she snarls, leaning forward, and Regina doesn’t understand any of this fury from Emma. They’re friends. They’re more than friends and they’re supposed to trust each other and her tired gaze takes another moment to see the tears glittering at the corner of Emma’s eyes.

Her fists are clenched into her blanket and she’s struggling for words and Regina is awestruck at how much seems to genuinely  _care_. “I don’t know if this is some bullshit about making amends for the past– for fucks’ sake, we don’t want you dead, we want you  _here_! I need you here! You can’t…” She breathes in and a ragged sob escapes her. “There was no reason to try to  _die_ for it, Regina!“

“Oh,” Regina whispers, reaching one aching hand to cup Emma’s cheek tenderly. Emma dissolves into it as though it’s her lifeline, clasping her own hand over Regina’s, and tears spill down her cheek to the tips of Regina’s fingers. “Emma.”

“I won’t lose you,” Emma whispers into Regina’s fingers, the anger faded to despair. “You never let me lose…lose myself, and I’ll never let you do it, either, just because some guy pisses you off.”

Regina shakes her head, her hand gentling as it trails down to Emma’s mouth, to hesitate against her lips as Emma shuts her eyes. “Not…what happened. He threatened…” She shivers.

Emma says, “You knew that no matter what he said, he couldn’t hurt Henry. You were already protecting him. Why’d you have to–“

“Emma,” Regina manages again, shaking her head. “Not Henry. He wanted to hurt  _you_.” She drops her hand as Emma’s eyes fly open, and she knows with a tingle under her skin that something is about to change. “He was going to…he set a trap for you…I couldn’t let you be…”

Emma stares at her in disbelief and something else crawls into her gaze. It’s tiny and afraid like Henry’s eyes on the first day of school. It’s tentative like  _See? That’s a start._ It’s raw and needy like a whirlwind of magic escaping Regina’s body in a rush of all-consuming love. “For me?” she chokes out, lost like the voice that Regina had tamped down in her mind.

“Of course,” Regina murmurs, and Emma leans down, down to Regina’s face, closer and closer still until she’s all Regina can see and feel and know. And her lips brush against Regina’s fingers, one after another after another–

Regina raises her hand to her mouth and Emma kisses her fingers a final time and tugs her hand out from between them, whispering  _Regina_  against her lips as they both exhale.


End file.
